Business Ideas – 3 Success Lessons from Reed Hastings (Netflix) Today we’re going to take a closer look at how a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher began a software company at the age of 48. Deciding to switch careers later in life, this man would build the largest movie-rental service in the United States, with more than 23 million subscribers. This is the story of Netflix founder Reed Hastings and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success. “I got the idea for Netflix after my company was acquired. I had a big late fee for ‘Apollo 13.’ It was six weeks late and I owed the video store $40. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault.” – Reed Hastings Reed Hastings (born October 8, 1960) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Netflix. He used to teach mathematics in Swaziland as an American Peace Corps volunteer. So, when 48 year old Reed Hastings decided to found his own software company, some eyebrows were raised. But Hastings would prove the disbelievers wrong with the subsequent founding of Netflix, the largest movie-rental service via mail in the U.S. With over 23 million subscribers and sales in the billions, Hastings proved he was able to go from living in Africa, to living in affluence. Hastings’ father was a prominent lawyer who once worked in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Nixon Administration. After graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree and winning awards for his mathematics abilities, Hastings felt the urge to join the Marine Corps. He signed up for their Platoon Leader Class, and spent two years in their boot camp in Quantico, Virginia. In 1983, Hastings found himself in Swaziland working as a mathematics professor for the Peace Corps. He stayed there two years before deciding to return home. Back in the U.S., Hastings was accepted into graduate school at Stanford. His first choice had been M.I.T., but he did not get accepted. Hastings graduated from Stanford with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in 1988, and was subsequently hired by Adaptive Technology, where he worked on developing a debugging software tool. But, Hastings wanted more of a challenge, and he wanted to work for himself. Hastings decided the only option was to set off on his own and start a business. In 1991, Hastings quit his job and launched Pure Software, a company dedicated to developing troubleshooting products for software. But, as the company grew, Hastings found that his mathematics and computer background was not enough of a match for running a business. He asked his company’s board of directors to replace him for the good of the company. After finally selling the business, he would wait two years before trying again. In 1998, Hastings founded Netflix as a movie rental by mail service that offered a flat rate subscription fee. Within five years the business was booming. Action Item #1: Change the […]

Business Ideas: 3 Business Lessons From J.K. Rowling by Evan Carmichael Today we’re going to look at how a single mother on welfare followed her passion of writing and became the first billion-dollar author and the highest earning novelist in history. This is the story of J.K. Rowling and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from her success. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – J.K. Rowling Action Item #1: Get Over Your Fear of Failure Nobody wants to fail but you can’t let the fear of failing prevent you from making important decisions in your life. Anything worth doing will come with a healthy dose of fear – successful entrepreneurs are the ones who can plough through that fear and come out victorious on the other side. Rowling couldn’t believe the number of different stories publishing houses gave her as to why they didn’t want to print her manuscript. Her story was too long, too fantastical, and wouldn’t do well selling to a mainstream audience, they said. She remained patient and had faith in her product. She continued to send it out to publishing houses until she found one who saw in her story what she did: a success. It was one year from the time Rowling finished the very first Harry Potter book to the time that a publisher finally agreed to buy and publish it. According to Rowling: “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. I was determined to try. I was determined to try because, frankly, my life was such a mess at this point, what — what was the worst that could happen? Everyone turn me down? Big deal.” Action Item #2: Make Every Second Count You only have so much time in the day to get work done and, as entrepreneurs, we usually have too many projects on the go to keep track of. It’s hard work getting a business off the ground and you need to make every second count. Harry Potter came to life on a day that Rowling was stuck on a train between Manchester and London during a four-hour delay. The passenger sitting next to her might have used the time to catch up on some sleep, but Rowling was determined to use the time to her advantage. Whether it was a 15 minute break from her secretarial duties at Amnesty International or a 30 minute nap time break from her baby daughter, Rowling used every spare second to dream up and jot down points for her story. According to Rowling: “Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you. I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what Hogwarts would be like — the most interesting train journey I’ve ever taken. By the time I […]

Business Ideas – 3 Business Lessons from the YouTube Founders by Evan Carmichael Today we are going to look at two men, one from a middle-class family, the other an immigrant from Taiwan. After befriending each other on the job, these two men would join forces to build an online business that would eventually sell for $1.65 billion. This is the story of YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the top 3 lessons you can learn from their success. “It’s about creating new market opportunities. Giving users new ways to be creative…We see our technology as a platform for other things.” – Chad Hurley and Steve Chen Steve Shih Chen (born August 1978) and Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 1, 1977) joined forces to build YouTube.com, a social video site that sold to Google for a reported $1.65 billion. These two friends met while working together at PayPal.com. They hit it off and would begin spending a lot of time together discussing their business ideas. However, it was not until eBay purchased PayPal for $1.54 billion that they both would decide to follow their dreams. Upon the sale of PayPal to eBay, both Chen and Hurley would receive large bonuses. They decided to use their money to create their own venture. With Chen’s engineering skills and Hurley’s creativity, they thought they had the right mix to form a company together. They really had no idea about what type of business to create, but felt that together they could create something monumental. In January 2005, Hurley and Chen attended a friend’s diner party in San Francisco. They had taken a few digital videos of the event and wanted to share them with each other the next day, but could not find a good way to do it. The files were too big to email and posting them online would take hours. With that, Hurley and Chen had their first idea for a sustainable business. Using the money they had received from the PayPal buyout, Chen and Hurley decided to create YouTube, to make uploading and sharing videos online as easy as anyone could want. Action Item #1: Build an Experience Action Item #2: Make the Business Unique Action Item #3: Focus on the Customer If you focus on your customer they’ll take care of your business success. Get close to them, understand what they really need, and get their feedback on what you can do to be better. Businesses that form around customer problems are more likely to succeed and are more likely to adapt to changes when the economy dips. From day one of YouTube, Hurley and Chen have reaffirmed their commitment to creating the best possible service for their customers, even where that came at the expense of their revenues. They are not simply compassionate businessmen, out to make people happy instead of making a dollar. Instead, they see user satisfaction as necessary for long-term success. […]

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